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BV    230    .S73    1896 


Stanley,  Arthur  Penrhyn, 

1815-1881. 
The  Lord's  prayer  and  the 

ten  commandments 


THE 

LORD'S  Prayer 

AND  THE 

Ten  Commandments 


BY 


Arthur  Penrhyn  Stanley,  D.D. 

Dean  of  Westminster 


e^ 


PfflLADKLPHIA 

HENRY  ALTEMUS 


COPYRIGHTED   1896 

BY  HENRY  ALTEMUS 


Hbnry  Altemus,  Manufacturer 
philadelphia 


THE  LORD'S  PRAYER. 


NO  one  doubts  that  the  Lord's  Prayer 
entered  into  all  the  Liturgical  observ- 
ances of  the  Early  Church.  No  one  questions 
its  fundamental  value. 

I.  First,  let  us  observe  the  importance  of 
having  such  a  form  at  all  as  the  Lord's  Prayer 
left  to  us  by  the  Founder  of  our  faith.  It 
was  said  once  by  a  Scottish  statesman,  "  Give 
to  any  one  you  like  the  making  of  a  nation's 
laws — give  me  the  making  of  their  ballads 
and  songs,  and  that  will  tell  us  the  mind  of 
the  nation."  So  it  might  be  said,  "Give  to 
any  one  you  like  the  making  of  a  Church's 
creed — or  a  Church's  decrees  or  rubrics — 
give  me  the  making  of  its  prayers,  and  that 
will  tell  us  the  mind  of  the  Church  or  religious 
community."  We  have  in  this  Prayer  the 
one  public  universal  prayer  of  Christendom. 
It  contains  the  purest  wishes,  the  highest 
hopes,  the  tenderest  aspirations  which  our 
Master  put  into  the  mouth  of  His  followers. 
It  is  the  rule  of  our  worship,  the  guide  of  our 


4  ■         THE  LORD' S  PRAYER. 

inmost  thoughts.  This  prayer  on  the  whole 
has  been  accepted  by  all  the  Churches  of  the 
world.  In  the  English  Liturgy  it  is  repeated 
in  every  single  service — too  often  for  purposes 
of  edification.  The  reason  evidently  is  be- 
cause it  was  thought  that  no  service  could  be 
complete  without  it.  This  is  the  excuse  for 
what  otherwise  would  seem  to  be  a  vain 
repetition.  Again,  it  is  used  so  frequently  in 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  that  its  two  first 
words  have  almost  passed  into  a  name  for  a 
prayer  generally — Pater  Nosier, — which  is  the 
Latin  of  "  Our  Father."  It  has  been  trans- 
lated into  almost  all  languages.  It  is  used,  at 
least  in  modern  times,  in  all  the  Presbyterian 
churches  of  Scotland,  and  in  most  of  the 
English  Nonconformist  churches.  However 
great  may  be  the  scruples  which  any  commun- 
ity may  entertain  against  set  forms,  there  is 
hardly  any  which  will  refuse  to  use  this  prayer. 
The  Society  of  Friends  is  probably  the  only 
exception.  Whatever  may  be  the  case  with 
other  formularies  or  catechisms,  this  at  least 
is  not  a  distinctive  formulary ;  it  is  common 
to  the  whole  of  Christendom — nay,  as  we 
shall  see,  it  is  common  to  the  whole  of  man- 
kind. Luther  calls  it  "  the  Prayer  of  Prayers." 
Baxter  says,  **The  Lord's  Prayer,  with  the 


ITS  OUTWARD  SHAPE.  5 

Creed  and  Ten  Commandments,  the  older  I 
grew,  furnished  me  with  a  most  plentiful  and 
acceptable  matter  for  all  my  meditations." 
Archbishop  Leighton,  the  only  man  who  was 
almost  successful  in  joining  together  the 
Churches  of  England  and  Scotland,  was,  we 
are  told,  especially  partial  to  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  said  of  it,  "  Oh,  the  spirit  of  this 
prayer  would  make  rare  Christians."  Bos- 
suet,  the  most  celebrated  of  French  divines, 
and  Channing,  the  most  celebrated  of  Ameri- 
can divines,  both  repeated  it  on  their  death- 
beds. Channing  said,  **  This  is  the  perfection 
of  the  Christian  religion."  Boussuet  said, 
**  Let  us  road  and  re-read  incessantly  the 
Lord's  Prayer.  It  is  the  true  prayer  of  Christ- 
ians, and  the  most  perfect,  for  it  contains  all." 
On  the  day  of  his  execution  it  was  repeated 
by  Count  Egmont,  leader  of  the  insurrection 
in  the  Netherlands.  On  the  day  of  his  mortal 
illness  it  summed  up  the  devotions  of  the 
Emperor  Nicholas  of  Russia.  Even  those 
who  knew  nothing  about  it  have  acknowledged 
its  excellence.  A  French  countess  read  this 
prayer  to  her  unbelieving  husband  in  a  dan- 
gerous illness.  "  Say  that  again,"  he  said, 
"  it  is  a  beautiful  prayer.  Who  made  it .?  " 
2.  Again,  in  the  Early   Church   it  was  the 


6  THE  LORD  S  PR  A  YER. 

only  set  form  of  Liturgy ;  it  was,  so  to  speak, 
the  whole  Liturgy ;  it  was  the  only  set  form 
of  prayer  then  used  in  the  celebration  of  the 
Holy  Communion.  Whatever  other  prayers 
were  used  were  offered  up  according  to  the 
capacity  and  choice  of  the  minister.  But 
there  was  one  prayer  fixed  and  universal,  and 
that  was  the  Lord's  Prayer.  The  Clementine 
Liturgy  alone  omits  it.  From  that  unique 
position  it  has  been  gradually  pushed  aside 
by  more  modern  prayers.  But  the  recollec- 
tion of  its  ancient  pre-eminent  dignity  is  still 
retained  in  the  older  liturgies  by  its  following 
immediately  after  the  consecration  prayer; 
and  in  the  modern  English  Liturgy,  although 
it  has  been  yet  further  removed,  yet  its  high 
importance  in  the  service  is  indicated  by  its 
being  used  twice — once  at  the  commence- 
ment and  immediately  after  the  administra- 
tion. Whenever  we  so  hear  it  read  we  are 
reminded  of  its  original  grandeur  as  the  root 
of  all  liturgical  eucharistic  services  every- 
where. It  is  an  indication  partly  of  the  im- 
mense change  which  has  taken  place  in  all 
liturgies ;  it  shows  how  far  even  the  most 
ancient  that  exist  have  departed  from  their 
original  form.  But  it  reminds  us  also  what 
is  the  substance  of  the  whole  Communion 


ITS  OUTWARD  SHAPE.  7 

service;  what  is  the  spirit  by  which  and  in 
which  alone  the  blessings  of  that  service  can 
be  received. 

3.  And  now  let  us  look  at  its  outward 
shape.  What  do  we  learn  from  this.?  We 
may  infer  from  the  occurrence  of  any  form  at 
all  in  the  teaching  of  Christ  that  set  forms 
of  prayer  are  not  in  themselves  wrong.  He, 
when  He  was  asked  by  His  disciples,  "Teach 
us  to  pray,"  did  not  say,  as  He  might  have 
done,  *'  Never  use  any  form  of  words — wait 
till  the  Spirit  moves  you — take  no  thought 
how  you  shall  speak,  for  it  shall  be  given  you 
in  the  same  hour  what  you  should  speak — 
*out  of  the  abundance  of  your  heart  your 
mouth  shall  speak.'  "  There  are  times  when 
He  did  so  speak.  But  at  any  rate  on  two 
occasions  He  is  reported  to  have  given  a 
fixed  form  of  words.  But  as  He  gave  a  fixed 
form,  so  neither  did  He  bind  His  disciples  to 
every  word  of  it  always  and  exclusively.  He 
did  not  say,  "  In  these  words  pray  ye,"  but  on 
one  occasion,  "After  this  manner  pray  ye." 
And  as  if  to  bring  out  still  more  distinctly 
that  even  in  this  most  sacred  of  all  prayers, 
it  is  the  spirit  and  not  the  letter  that  is  of  any 
avail,  there  are  two  separate  forms  of  it  given 
in  the  Gospels  according  to  St.  Matthew  and 


8  THE  L  ORD  S  PR  A  YER. 

St.  Luke,  which,  though  the  same  in  sub- 
stance, differ  much  in  detail.  "  Give  us  this 
day  our  daily  bread,"  it  is  in  St.  Matthew; 
''Give  us  day  by  day  our  daily  bread,"  it  is 
in  St.  Luke.  "Forgive  us  our  debts  as  we 
forgive  our  debtors,"  it  is  in  St.  Matthew ; 
**  Forgive  us  our  sins ;  for  we  also  forgive 
every  one  that  is  indebted  to  us,"  it  is  in  St. 
Luke.  And  yet,  besides,  it  may  be  observed 
that  there  is  a  still  further  variation  in  the 
Lord's  Prayer  as  we  read  it  in  the  English 
Liturgy  from  the  form  in  which  we  read  it  in 
in  the  Authorized  Version  of  the  Bible — 
"Forgive  us  our  trespasses  as  we  forgive 
them  that  trespass  against  us,"  is  a  petition 
that  is  the  same  in  sense  but  different  in 
w^ords  from  what  it  is  either  in  St.  Matthew 
or  St.  Luke.  And  again,  what  we  call  the 
doxology  at  the  end,  "  For  thine  is  the  king- 
dom, and  the  power,  and  the  glory,"  is  not 
found  at  all  in  St.  Luke,  nor  in  the  oldest 
manuscripts  of  St.  Matthew,  and  is  never 
used  at  all  in  the  oldest  Churches  of  Europe. 
The  Roman  Catholic  Church  absolutely  re- 
jects it.  The  Greek  reads  it,  but  not  as  part 
of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Pope,  the  Roman 
Catholic  poet,  imagined  that  it  was  written 
by  Luther.     All   these  variations   show  the 


ITS  ORTGIN.  9 

difference  between  the  spirit  and  the  sub- 
stance, between  the  form  and  the  letter.  The 
Lord's  Prayer  is  often  repeated  merely  by 
rote,  and  has  often  been  used  superstitiously 
as  a  charm.  These  slight  variations  are  the 
best  proofs  that  this  formal  repetition  is  not 
the  use  for  which  it  was  intended.  In  order 
to  pray  as  Jesus  Christ  taught  us  to  pray,  we 
must  pray  with  the  understanding  as  well  as 
with  the  spirit — with  the  spirit  and  heart  as 
well  as  with  the  lips.  Prayer  in  its  inferior 
form  becomes  merely  mechanical  ;  but  in  its 
most  perfect  form  it  requires  the  exercise  of 
the  reason  and  understanding.  This  distinc- 
tion is  the  salt  which  saves  all  prayers  and 
all  religions  whatever  from  corruption. 

4.  There  is  yet  a  further  lesson  to  be 
learned  from  the  general  form  and  substance 
of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Whence  did  it  come.? 
What,  so  to  speak,  was  the  quarry  out  of 
which  it  was  hewn  .?  It  might  have  been  en- 
tirely fresh  and  new.  It  might  have  been 
brought  out  for  the  first  time  by  "  Him  who 
spake  as  never  man  spake."  And  in  a  cer- 
tain sense  this  was  so.  As  a  whole  it  is  en- 
tirely new.  It  is,  taking  it  from  first  to  last, 
what  it  is  truly  called,  "The  Lord's  Prayer" 
—the  Prayer  of  our  Lord,  and  of  no  one  else. 


lo  THE  L  ORD'  S  PR  A  YER. 

But  if  we  take  each  clause  and  word  by  itself 
it  has  often  been  observed  by  scholars  that 
they  are  in  part  taken  from  the  writings  of 
the  Jewish  Rabbis.  It  was  an  exaggeration 
of  Wetstein  when  he  said,  "Tota  hasc  oratio 
ex  formulis  Hebrseorum  concinnata  est."  But 
certainly  in  the  first  two  petitions  there  are 
strong  resemblances.  **  Every  scribe,"  said 
our  Lord,  "  bringeth  forth  out  of  his  treasury 
things  new  and  old."  And  that  is  exactly 
what  He  did  Himself  in  this  famous  prayer. 
Something  like  at  least  to  those  familiar  peti- 
tions exists  in  some  hole  or  corner  of  Jewish 
liturgies.  It  was  reserved  for  the  Divine 
Master  to  draw  them  forth  from  darkness 
into  light,  and  speak  out  on  the  housetop 
what  was  formerly  whispered  in  the  scholar's 
closet — to  strins^  to2fether  in  one  continuous 
garland  the  pearls  of  great  price  that  had 
been  scattered  here  and  there,  disjointed  and 
divided.  We  learn  from  this  the  value  of 
selection,  discrimination  of  study,  in  the 
choice  of  our  materials  of  knowledge,  whether 
divine  or  human,  and  especially  of  our  devo- 
tion. We  are  not  to  think  that  a  saying,  or 
truth,  or  prayer  is  less  divine  because  it  is 
found  outside  the  Bible.  We  are  not  to  think 
that  anything  good  in  itself  is  less  good  be- 


ITS  COXTENTS.  il 

cause  it  comes  from  a  rabbinical  or  heathen 
source, 

5.  Observe  its  brevity.  It  is  indeed  a  com- 
ment upon  the  saying,  "  God  is  in  heaven,  and 
thou  upon  earth  ;  therefore  let  thy  words  be 
few,"  No  doubt  very  often  we  pray  in  forms 
much  longer  than  this  ;  but  the  shortness  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer  is  compatible  with  its  being 
the  most  excellent  of  all  prayers,  and  with 
compressing  our  devotion  into  the  briefest 
compass.  In  fact  the  occasion  on  which  it 
is  introduced  lays  the  chief  stress  on  its 
shortness.  It  was  first  taught  in  express  con- 
trast to  the  long  repetitions  of  the  heathen 
religions,  "  They  think  that  they  shall  be 
heard  for  their  much  speaking.  Be  not  ye 
therefore  like  unto  them,  for  your  Father 
knoweth  what  things  yc  have  need  of  before 
ye  ask  Him,  After  this  manner  therefore 
pray  ye,"  Every  one,  however  difficult  he 
may  find  it  to  make  long  prayers,  however 
pressing  his  business  may  be,  morning,  noon, 
and  night,  may  have  time  for  this  very  short 
prayer.  How  long  does  it  take  }  One  min- 
ute. How  many  sentences  does  it  contain  ? 
Seven.  The  youngest  as  well  as  the  oldest — 
the  busiest  as  well  as  the  idlest — the  most 
sceptical  as  well  as  the  most  devout — can  at 


12  THE  L  ORD'  S  PR  A  YER. 

least  in  the  day  once  or  twice,  if  not  in  the 
early  morning  or  the  late  evening,  use  this 
short  prayer.  There  is  nothing  in  it  to 
offend.  They  who  scruple  or  who  throw 
aside  the  Prayer  Book,  or  the  Directory,  or 
the  Catechism,  or  the  Creed,  at  least  may  say 
the  Lord's  Prayer.  They  cannot  be  the  worse 
for  it.     They  may  be  the  better. 

6.  And  now  let  us  look  upon  the  substance 
of  the  sentences  as  they  follow  one  another. 
We  have  said  that  a  nation's  religious  life 
may  be  judged  by  its  chief  prayers.  For  ex- 
ample, the  Mohammedan  religion  may  fairly 
claim  to  be  represented  by  the  one  prayer 
that  every  Mussulman  offers  to  God  morning 
and  evening.  It  is  in  the  first  chapter  of  the 
Koran,  and  it  is  this  :  — 

"  Praise  be  to  God,  Master  of  the  Universe, 
The  Merciful,  the  Compassionate, 
Lord  of  the  day  of  Judgment, 
To  Thee  we  give  our  worship, 
From  Thee  we  have  our  help. 
Guide  us  in  the  right  way, 
In  the  way   of  those  whom  Thou  hast  loaded  with  Thy 

blessing, 
Not  in  the  way  of  those  who  have  encountered  Thy  wrath, 
or  who  have  gone  astray.'* 

Let  us  not  despise  that  prayer — so  humble, 
so  simple,  so  true.  Let  us  rather  be  thankful 
that  from  so  many  devout  hearts  throughout 


ITS  CONTENTS.  13 

the  Eastern  world  there  ascends  so  pure  an 
offering  to  the  Most  High  God.  Yet  surely  we 
may  say  in  no  proud  or  Pharisaic  spirit  that, 
compared  even  with  this  exalted  prayer  of  the 
Arabian  Prophet,  there  is  a  richness,  a  ful- 
ness, a  height  of  hope,  a  depth  of  humility, 
a  breadth  of  meaning  in  the  prayer  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  which  we  find  nowhere  else, 
which  stamps  it  with  a  divinity  all  its  own. 

"  Our  P^ather  which  art  iN  Heaven." 
Our  Father,  not  my  Father.  He  is  the  God 
not  of  one  man,  or  one  church,  or  one  nation, 
or  one  race  only — but  of  all  who  can  raise 
their  thoughts  towards  Him.  Father.  That 
is  the  most  human,  most  personal,  most  loving 
thought  which  we  can  frame  in  speaking  of 
the  Supreme  Being.  And  yet  He  is  in 
Heaven.  That  is  the  most  remote,  the  most 
spiritual,  the  most  impersonal  thought  which 
we  can  frame  concerning  Him.  Heaven  is 
a  word  which  expresses  the  ideal,  the  unseen 
world,  and  there  infinitely  raised  above  us  all 
is  the  Father  whom  we  adore.  **  Hallowed 
be  Thy  name."  That  is  the  hope  that  all 
levity,  that  all  profanencss  may  be  banished 
from  the  worship  of  God  ;  not  only  that  our 
worship  may  be  simple,  solemn,  and  reverent, 
but  that  our  thoughts  concerning  Him  may 


14  THE  L  ORD  S  PR  A  YER. 

be  consecrated  and  set  apart  from  all  the  low, 
debasing,  superstitious,  selfish  ends  to  which 
His  name  has  so  often  been  turned.  "  O 
Liberty,"  it  was  once  said,  "how  many  are 
the  crimes  that  have  been  committed  in  thy 
name !"  "  O  Religion,"  so  we  may  also  say 
when  we  repeat  this  clause  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  "how  many  are  the  crimes  that  have 
been  committed  in  thy  name  ! "  May  that 
holy  name  be  hallowed  by  the  acts  and  words 
of  those  who  profess  it!  "Thy  kingdom 
COME."  This  is  the  highest  hope  of  humanity  : 
that  the  rule  of  supreme  truth,  and  mercy, 
and  justice,  and  beauty,  may  penetrate  every 
province  of  thought,  and  action,  and  law,  and 
art.  It  has  been  said  there  are  some  places 
on  earth  where  we  have  to  think  what  is  the 
one  single  prayer  which  we  should  utter  if  we 
were  sure  of  its  being  fulfilled.  This  would 
be }  "  Thy  kingdom  come."  "  Thy  will  be 
DONE."  That  is  the  expression  of  our  entire 
resignation  to  whatever  shall  year  by  year, 
and  day  by  day  befall  us.  Resignation  which 
shall  calm  our  passions,  and  control  our  mur- 
murs, and  curtail  our  griefs,  and  kindle  our 
cheerfulness.  It  is,  as  Bishop  Butler  has 
said,  the  whole  of  religion.  Islam  derives  its 
name  from   it.     "In    earth    as    it    is    in 


ITS  CONTENTS.  1$ 

Heaven."  These  are  words  which  Hft  our 
souls  up  from  the  world  in  which  we  struggle 
with  manifold  imperfections  to  the  ideal 
heavenly  world,  where  all  is  perfect.  Party 
strife — crooked  ends — ignominious  flatteries 
— are  they  necessary.'*  Let  us  hope  that  a 
time  may  come  when  they  will  be  unnecessary. 
"Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread." 
Here  we  turn  from  heaven  back  to  earth, 
and  ask  for  our  needful  food,  our  enjoyment, 
our  sustenance  from  day  to  day.  It  is  the 
one  petition  for  our  earthly  wants.  We  know 
not  what  a  day  may  bring  forth.  Give  us 
only,  give  us  at  least  what  we  need,  of  sus- 
tenance both  for  body  and  soul.  "Enough  is 
enough  " — ask  not  for  more.  "  Enough  for 
our  faith,  enough  for  our  maintenance  when 
the  sun  dawns  and  before  the  sun  sets. 
"Forgive  us  our  trespasses  as  we  for- 
give   THEM     THAT     TRESPASS     AGAINST     US." 

Who  is  there  that  has  not  need  to  forgive 
some  one — who  is  there  that  has  not  the  need 
of  something  to  be  forgiven  }  The  founder  of 
Georgia  said  to  the  founder  of  Methodism, 
"I  never  forgive  any  one."  John  Wesley 
answered,  "Sir,  I  trust  you  never  sin."  "Lead 
US  NOT  into  temptation."  The  temptations 
which  beset   us  !    How   much  of   sin  comes 


i6  THE  L  ORD'  S  PR  A  YER, 

from  the  outward  incidents  and  companion- 
ships round  us  !  How  much  of  innocence  from 
that  good  Providence  which  wards  off  the 
corrupting,  defiling,  debasing  influences  that 
fill  the  earth  !  Save  us,  we  may  well  ask,  from 
the  circumstances  of  our  age,  our  country, 
our  church,  our  profession,  our  character; 
save  us  from  those  circumstances  which  draw 
forth  our  natural  infirmities— save  us  from 
these,  break  their  force.  And  this  is  best 
accomplished  by  the  last  petition,  "  Deliver 
us  FROM  EVIL ;"  that  is,  deliver  us  from  the 
evil,  whatsoever  it  is,  that  lurks  even  in  the 
best  of  good  things.  From  the  idleness  that 
grows  out  of  youth  and  fulness  of  bread — 
from  the  party  spirit  that  grows  out  of  our 
political  enthusiasm  or  our  nobler  ambition — 
from  the  fanatical  narrowness  which  goes  hand 
in  hand  with  our  religious  earnestness — from 
the  harshness  which  clings  to  our  love  of 
truth — from  the  indifference  which  results 
from  our  wide  toleration — from  the  indecision 
which  intrudes  itself  into  our  careful  dis- 
crimination— from  the  folly  of  the  good,  and 
from  the  selfishness  of  the  wise.  Good  Lord 
deliver  us.     "  For  thine    is  the   kingdom, 

AND  the  power,  and  THE  GLORY,  FOR  EVER 

AND    EVER,    AMEN."      So    Christendom    has 


ITS  CONTENTS.  17 

added  its  ratification  to  the  words  of  Christ. 
It  is  the  thankfulness  which  we  all  feel  for 
the  majesty  and  thought  and  beauty  which 
our  heavenly  Father  has  shown  to  us  in  the 
paths  of  nature  or  in  the  greatness  of  man. 
We  have  thus  briefly  traversed  these  peti- 
tions. When  our  Lord's  disciples  came  and 
asked  for  a  form  of  prayer,  not  as  John's  dis- 
ciples had  received  from  their  master,  they 
thought,  no  doubt,  that  He  would  give  them 
something  peculiar  to  themselves  —  some- 
thing that  no  one  else  could  use.  They  little 
knew  what  the  peculiarity,  the  singularity  of 
their  Master's  Prayer  would  be — that  it  was 
one  that  might  be  used  by  every  church,  by 
every  sect,  by  every  nation,  by  every  member 
of  the  human  family.  It  is  possible  that  some 
may  be  inclined  to  complain  of  this  extreme 
comprehensiveness  and  indefiniteness,  and 
to  say  there  is  something  here  which  falls 
short  of  the  promise  in  St.  John's  Gospel. 
"  If  ye  shall  ask  anything  in  My  name,  I  will 
do  it."  But  the  answer  is  that  here,  as  before, 
this  prayer  is  a  striking  example  of  the  great- 
ness of  the  spirit  above  the  letter.  In  the 
letter  it  does  not  begin  or  end  in  the  actual 
name  of  Jesus  Christ.  That  familiar  termin- 
ation which  to  our  ears  has  become  almost 


18  THE  LORD'S  PR  A  J  ER. 

the  necessary  ending  to  every  prayer,  and 
which  is  used  in  every  church,  whether  Uni- 
tarian or  Trinitarian,  is  not  here.  We  do  not 
close  our  Lord's  Prayer  with  the  words 
"through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  We  do 
not  invoke  the  holy  name  of  Jesus  either  at 
the  beginning  or  end.  But  not  the  less  is  it 
in  the  fullest  sense  a  prayer  in  the  name  of 
Christ.  In  the  name  of  Christ,  that  is  (taking 
these  words  in  their  Biblical  sense),  **in  the 
spirit  of  Christ,"  "according  to  the  nature 
and  the  will  of  Christ,"  copying  from  the 
lips  of  Christ,  adopted  as  his  one  formulary 
of  faith  at  His  express  commandment.  In 
this  true  meaning  of  the  words  the  Lord's 
Prayer  is  more  the  Prayer  of  our  Lord,  is 
more  entirely  filled  with  the  name  and  spirit 
of  Christ,  than  if  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  were  repeated  a  hundred  times  over. 
In  Pope's  Universal  Prayer  there  is  much 
which  is  condemned  by  religious  persons,  and 
we  do  not  undertake  to  defend  the  taste  or 
the  sentiment  of  it  in  every  part.  But  as- 
suredly that  which  is  its  chief  characteristic, 
its  universality,  is  exactly  in  spirit  that  which 
belongs  to  the  prayer  of  Christ.  It  is  ex- 
pressed in  those  well-known  words  : — 


ITS  CONTENTS.  19 

"  Father  of  all !  in  every  age, 
In  every  clime  ador'd, 
By  saint,  by  savage,  or  by  sage, 
Jehovah,  Jove,  or  Lord." 

It  is  this  very  characteristic  of  the  prayer 
which  makes  it  to  be  in  His  name.  It  is  this 
very  universaHty  which  overflows  with  Him- 
self, and  which  makes  the  prayer  of  the  phil- 
osopher to  be  a  paraphrase  of  His  Prayer.  He 
is  in  every  syllable  of  this  sacred  formula,  as 
He  is  not  equally  in  any  other  formula.  He 
is  in  the  whole  of  it,  and  in  all  its  parts.  Of 
these,  the  most  sacred  of  all  the  words  that 
He  has  given  us,  it  is  true  what  He  said  of  all 
His  words — they  are  not  mere  words,  they 
are  spirit  and  they  are  life. 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 


THE  Ten  Commandments  were  always  in 
the  Christian  Church  united  with  the 
Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Creed  (whether  longer  or 
shorter)  as  a  Christian  Institution.  In  earlier 
Catholic  times  they  were  used  as  a  frame- 
work of  moral  precepts ;  in  Protestant  times 
they  were  written  conspicuously  in  the 
churches.  In  either  case  there  are  important 
principles  involved  in  the  prominence  thus 
given  to  them  which  demand  consideration. 
In  order  to  do  this  we  must  trace  the  facts  to 
their  Jewish  origin. 

I.  Let  us  first  examine  what  were  the  Ten 
Commandments  in  their  outward  form  and 
appearance  when  they  were  last  seen  by  mor- 
tal eyes  as  the  ark  was  placed  in  Solomon's 
Temple. 

I.  They  were  written  on  two  tables  or 
blocks  of  stone  or  rock.  The  mountains  of 
Sinai  are  of  red  and  white  granite.  On  two 
blocks  of  this  granite  rock — the  most  lasting 
and  almost  the  oldest  kind  of  rock  that  is  to 
(23) 


24  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

be  found  in  the  world,  as  if  to  remind  us  that 
these  Laws  were  to  be  the  beginning  and  the 
end  of  all  things — were  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, the  Ten  Words,  written.  They  were 
written,  not  as  we  now  write  them,  only  on 
one  side  of  each  of  the  two  tables,  but  on 
both  sides,  so  as  to  give  the  idea  of  absolute 
completeness  and  solidity.  Each  block  of 
stone  was  covered  behind  and  before  with  the 
sacred  letters.  Again,  they  were  not  arranged 
as  we  now  arrange  them.  In  the  Fourth,  for 
example,  the  reason  for  keeping  holy  the 
seventh  day  is,  in  Exodus,  because  "God 
rested  on  the  seventh  day  from  the  work  of 
creation ;"  in  Deuteronomy  it  is  to  remind 
them  that  "  they  were  once  strangers  in  the 
land  of  Egypt."  Probably,  therefore,  these 
reasons  were  not  actually  written  on  the 
stone,  but  were  given  afterwards,  at  two  dif- 
ferent times,  by  way  of  explanation ;  so  that 
the  first  four  Commandments,  as  they  were 
written  on  the  tables,  were  shorter  than  they 
are  now.  Here,  as  everywhere  in  the  Bible, 
there  may  be  many  reasons  for  doing  what  is 
right.  It  is  the  doing  of  the  thing,  and  not 
the  particular  occasion  or  reason,  which  makes 
it  right.  Another  slight  difference  was  that 
the   Commandments   probably  were   divided 


THEIR  ARRANGEMENT.  25 

into  two  equal  portions,  so  that  the  Fifth 
Commandment,  instead  of  being,  as  it  is  with 
us,  at  the  top  of  the  second  table,  was  at  the 
bottom  of  the  first.  The  duty  of  honoring 
our  parents  is  so  like  the  duty  of  honoring 
God,  that  it  was  put  amongst  the  same  class 
of  duties.  The  duty  to  both,  as  in  the  Roman 
word  ''pietas,"  was  comprised  under  the  same 
category,  and  so  it  is  here  understood  by 
Josephus,  Philo,  and  apparently  by  St.  Paul. 

These  differences  between  the  original  and 
the  present  arrangement  should  be  noted,  be- 
cause it  is  interestnig  to  have  before  us  as 
nearly  as  we  can  the  exact  likeness  of  those 
old  Commandments,  and  because  it  is  useful 
to  remember  how  even  these  most  sacred 
and  ancient  wortls  have  undergone  some 
change  in  their  outward  form  since  they 
were  first  given,  and  yet  still  are  equally 
true  and  equally  venerable.  Religion  does 
not  consist  in  counting  the  syllables  of  the 
Bible,  but  in  doing  what  it  tells  us. 

2.  When  the  Christian  Church  sprang  out 
of  the  Jewish  Church,  it  did  not  part  with 
those  venerable  relics  of  the  earlier  time,  but 
they  were  still  used  to  teach  Christian  chil- 
dren their  duty,  as  Jewish  children  had  been 
taught  before.     But  there  were  different  ar- 


aS  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

rangements  introduced  in  different  parts  of 
the  world.  The  Talmudic  and  the  modern 
Jewish  tradition,  taking  the  Ten  Command- 
ments strictly  as  Ten  Words  or  Sentences 
(Decalogue),  makes  the  First  to  be  the  open- 
ing announcement :  ''  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God, 
which  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt," 
and  the  Second  is  made  up  of  what  in  our 
arrangement  would  be  the  First  and  Second 
combined.  The  Samaritan  division,  preserved 
in  the  roll  on  Mount  Gerizim,  puts  the  First 
and  Second  together,  as  the  First,  and  then 
adds  at  the  end  an  Eleventh,  according  to 
our  arrangement,  not  found  in  the  Hebrew 
Pentateuch,  which  will  be  noticed  as  we  pro- 
ceed. 

When  the  Christians  adopted  the  Com- 
mandments there  were  two  main  differences 
of  arrangement.  There  was  the  division  of 
Augustine  and  Bede.  This  follows  the  Jev/- 
ish  and  Samaritan  arrangement  of  combining 
in  one  the  First  and  Second  Commandments 
of  our  arrangement.  But  inasmuch  as  it  has 
no  Eleventh  Commandment,  like  the  Samar- 
itan, nor  any  ''First  Word,"  like  the  Jewish, 
it  makes  out  the  number  ten  by  dividing  the 
last  Commandment  into  two,  following  here 
the  arrangement  of  the  clauses  in  the  Hebrew 


THEIR  ARRANGEMENT.  27 

of  Deuteronomy,  and  in  the  LXX.  both  of 
Deuteronomy  and  Exodus,  so  as  to  make  the 
Ninth  Commandment — "Thoushalt  not  covet 
thy  neighbor's  wife,"  and  the  Tenth,  "Thou 
shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbor's  house,"  etc. 
This  is  followed  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  and  the  Lutheran  Church.  The 
division  followed  by  Origcn  and  Jerome  is 
the  same  as  that  followed  in  England  and 
Scotland.  It  is  common  to  all  the  Eastern 
Churches,  and  all  the  Reformed  Protestant 
Churches.  Here,  again,  the  various  arrange- 
ments give  us  a  useful  lesson,  as  showing  us 
how  the  different  parts  of  our  doctrine  and 
duty  may  not  be  quite  put  together  in  the 
same  way,  and  yet  be  still  the  same.  And 
also  it  may  remind  us  how  the  very  same  ar- 
rangements, even  in  outward  things,  may  be 
made  by  persons  of  the  most  opposite  way 
of  thinking;  it  is  a  warning  not  to  judge  any 
one  by  the  mere  outward  sign  or  badge  that 
they  wear.  No  one  could  be  more  unlike  to 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  than  the  Re- 
former Luther,  and  yet  the  same  peculiar 
arrangement  of  the  Ten  Commandments  was 
used  by  him  and  by  them.  No  one  could  be 
more  unlike  to  the  Eastern  Church  than  John 
Knox,  or  Calvin,  or  Cranmer,  and  yet  their 


28  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

arrangement  of  the  Ten   Commandments  is 
the  same. 

11.  What  are  we  to  learn  from  the  place 
which  the  Ten  Commandments  occupied  in 
the  old  dispensation } 

We  learn  what  is  the  true  foundation  of  all 
religion.  The  Ten  Commandments  are  simple 
rules ;  most  of  them  can  be  understood  by  a 
child.  But  still  they  are  the  very  heart  and 
essence  of  the  old  Jewish  religion.  They  oc- 
cupy a  very  small  part  of  the  Books  of  Moses. 
The  Ten  Commandments,  and  not  the  pre- 
cepts about  sacrifices  and  passovers  and 
boundaries  and  priests,  are  the  words  which 
are  said  to  have  been  delivered  in  thunder 
and  lightning  at  Mount  Sinai.  These,  and 
not  any  ceremonial  ordinances,  were  laid  up 
in  the  Most  Holy  Place,  as  the  most  precious 
heritage  of  the  nation.  '^  There  was  nothing 
in  the  ark  save  the  two  tables  of  stone,  which 
Moses  put  there  at  Horeb." 

Do  your  duty.  This  is  what  they  tell  us. 
Do  your  duty  to  God  and  your  duty  to  man. 
Whatever  we  may  believe  or  feel  or  think,  the 
main  thing  is  that  we  are  to  do  what  is  right, 
not  to  do  what  is  wrong.  Therefore  it  is  that 
in  the  Church  of  England  and  in  the  Re- 
formed Churches  of  the  Continent  they  are 


THEIR   IMPORTANCE.  29 

Still  read  in  the  most  sacred  parts  of  the  ser- 
vice, as  if  to  show  us  that,  go  as  far  as  we 
can  in  Christian  light  and  knowledge,  make 
as  much  as  we  will  of  Christian  doctrine  or  of 
Christian  worship,  still  we  must  never  lose 
hold  of  the  ancient  everlasting  lines  of  duty. 

III.  But  it  may  be  said.  Were  not  those 
Ten  Commandments  given  to  the  Jews  of 
old.^  Do  they  not  refer  to  the  land  of  I^^gypt 
and  the  land  of  Palestine  ?  Vv  e  love  and 
serve  God,  and  love  and  serve  our  brethren, 
not  because  it  is  written  in  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, but  because  it  is  written  on  the 
tables  of  our  hearts  by  the  Divine  Spirit,  on 
our  spirits  and  consciences.  But  herein  lies 
the  very  meaning  of  their  having  become  a 
Christian  Institution. 

In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  Jesus  Christ 
took  two  or  three  of  these  Commandments, 
and  explained  them  Himself  to  the  people. 
He  took  the  Sixth  Commandment,  and  showed 
that  for  us  it  is  not  enough  to  remember, 
"Thou  shalt  not  kill,"  but  that  the  Command- 
ment went  much  deeper,  and  forbade  all  angry 
thoughts  and  words.  This  was  intended  to 
apply  to  all  the  other  Commandments.  It  is 
not  in  their  letter,  but  in  their  spirit  that  they 
concern  us;   and  this,  no  doubt,  is  what  is 


30  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

meant  by  the  prayer  which  in  the  Church  of 
England  follows  after  each  of  them,  and  at 
the  end  of  all  of  them,  "  Incline  our  hearts 
to  keep  this  Commandment,"  "  Write  all 
these  Commandments  in  our  JieartSy  we  be- 
seech Thee." 

1.  Let  us  take  them  one  by  one  in  this  way. 
The  First  Commandment  is  no  longer  ours  in 
the  letter,  for  it  begins  by  saying,  "  I  am  the 
Lord  thy  God,  who  brought  thee  out  of  the 
land  of  Egypt."  He  did  not  bring  us  out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt,  and  so  completely  has  this 
ceased  to  apply  to  us  that  in  the  Command- 
ments as  publicly  read,  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land has  boldly  struck  out  these  words  alto- 
gether from  the  First  Commandment.  But 
the  spirit  of  the  Commandment  still  remains  ; 
for  we  all  need  to  be  reminded  that  there  is 
but  one  Supreme  Mind,  whose  praise  and 
blame  are,  above  all,  worth  having,  seeking 
or  deserving. 

2.  The  Second  Commandment  is  no  longer 
ours  in  the  letter,  for  the  sculptures  and 
paintings  which  we  see  at  every  turn  are  what 
the  Second  Commandment  in  its  letter  forbade, 
and  what  the  Jews,  therefore,  never  made. 
Every  statue,  every  picture,  not  only  in  every 
church,  but   in  every  street  or  room,  is  a 


THEIR  CONTENTS.  31 

breach  of  the  letter  of  the  Second  Command- 
ment. No  Jew  would  have  ventured  under 
the  Mosaic  dispensation  to  have  them.  When 
Solomon  made  the  golden  lions  and  oxen  in 
the  Temple,  it  was  regarded  by  his  country- 
men as  unlawful.  The  Mahometan  world 
still  observes  the  Second  Commandment 
literally.  The  ungainly  figures  of  the  lions 
in  the  court  of  the  Alhambra,  contrasted  with 
the  exquisite  carving  of  arabesques  and  texts 
on  the  walls,  is  an  exception  that  amply 
proves  the  rule.  The  Christian  world  has 
entirely  set  it  aside.  But  in  spirit  it  is  still 
important.  It  teaches  us  that  we  must  not 
make  God  after  our  likeness,  or  after  any 
likeness  short  of  absolute  moral  perfection. 
Any  fancies,  any  doctrines,  any  practices 
which  lead  us  to  think  that  God  is  capricious 
or  unjust  or  untruthful,  or  that  He  cares  for 
any  outward  thing  compared  with  holiness, 
mercy,  and  goodness — that  is  the  breach  of 
the  Second  Commandment  in  spirit.  It  was 
said  truly  of  an  attempt  to  introduce  cere- 
monial forms  of  the  Christian  religion,  **It  is 
so  many  ways  of  breaking  the  Second  Com- 
mandment." Every  attempt  to  purify  and 
exalt  our  ideas  of  God  is  the  keeping  of  the 
Second   Commandment   in    spirit,   even    al 


32  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS, 

though  we  live  amidst  pictures  and  statues 
and  sculptures  of  things  in  heaven  and  things 
in  earth  and  things  under  the  earth. 

3.  The  Third  Commandment.  Here  the 
original  meaning  of  the  Commandment  is 
more  elevated  and  more  spiritual  than  that 
which  is  commonly  given  to  it.  Many  see  in 
it  only  a  prohibition  of  profane  swearing  or 
false  swearing.  It  means  this — but  it  means 
much  more.  It  means  that  we  are  not  to 
appeal  to  God's  name  for  any  unworthy  pur- 
pose. It  is  a  protest  against  all  those  sins 
which  have  claimed  the  sanction  of  God  or  of 
religion.  The  words  are  literally,  "Thou 
shalt  not  bring  the  Holy  Name  to  anything 
that  is  vain,"  that  is,  to  anything  that  is  un- 
holy, hollow,  empty.  The  plea  and  pretext  of 
God's  name  will  not  avail  as  an  excuse  for 
cruelty  or  hypocrisy  or  untruthfulness  or  un- 
dutifulness.  The  Eternal  will  not  hold  him 
guiltless  who  taketh  His  name  in  vain — that 
is,  who  brings  it  to  an  unjust  or  unrighteous 
cause.  All  the  wicked  persecutions  carried 
on,  all  the  wicked  wars  waged,  all  the  pious 
frauds  perpetrated  in  the  name  of  the  Holy 
God,  are  breaches  of  the  Third  Command- 
ment, both  in  its  letter  and  in  its  spirit. 

4.  The  Fourth  Commandment.     Here,  as 


THEIR  CONTENTS.  33 

in  the  Second  Commandment,  there  is  a  wide 
divergence  between  the  letter  and  the  spirit. 
In  its  letter  it  is  obeyed  by  no  Christian 
society  whatever,  except  the  Abyssinian 
Church  in  Africa,  and  the  small  sect  of  the 
Seventh-Day  Baptists  in  England.  They  still 
keep  a  day  of  rest  on  the  Saturday,  the  sev- 
enth day  of  the  week.  But  in  every  other 
country  the  seventh  day  is  observed  only  by 
the  Jews,  and  not  by  the  Christians.  And 
again  only  by  the  Jews,  and  not  by  Christians 
anywhere,  are  the  Mosaic  laws  kept  which 
forbade  the  lighting  of  a  single  fire,  which 
forbade  the  walking  beyond  a  single  mile, 
which  forbade  the  employment  of  a  single 
animal,  which  visited  as  a  capital  offence  the 
slightest  employment  on  the  seventh  day. 
And  again,  the  reasons  given  in  the  two  ver- 
sions of  the  Fourth  Commandment  are  passed 
away.  We  cannot  be  called,  as  in  Deuter- 
onomy, to  remember  that  we  were  strangers 
in  the  land  of  Egypt,  for  many  of  us  were 
never  in  Egypt  at  all.  We  cannot  be  called, 
as  in  Exodus,  to  remember  that  the  earth  was 
made  in  six  days,  for  we  most  of  us  know  that 
it  took,  not  six  days,  but  millions  of  ages,  to 
bring  the  earth  from  its  void  and  formless 
state  to  its  present  condition.  The  letter  of 
3 


34  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENT S. 

the  Fourth  Commandment  has  long  ceased. 
The  very  name  of  "the  Lord's  Day"  and  of 
"the  first  day  of  the  week"  is  a  protest  against 
it.  The  very  name  of  Sabbath  is  condemned 
by  St.  Paul.  The  Catechism  of  the  Church  of 
England  speaks  of  the  duty  of  serving  God 
all  the  days  of  our  life,  and  not  of  serving 
Him  on  one  day  alone.  But  the  principle 
which  lay  at  the  bottom  of  the  Fourth  Com- 
mandment has  not  passed  away.  Just  as  the 
prohibition  of  statues  in  the  Second  Com- 
mandment is  now  best  carried  out  by  the 
avoidance  of  superstitious,  unworthy,  degrad- 
ing ideas  of  the  nature  of  God,  so  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  in 
the  Fourth  Commandment  is  aimed  against 
worldly,  hard,  exacting  ideas  of  the  work  of 
man.  The  principle  of  the  Fourth  Command- 
ment enjoins  the  sacred  duty  of  rest — for 
there  is  an  element  of  rest  in  the  Divine 
Nature  itself.  It  enjoins  also  the  sacred  duty 
of  kindness  to  our  servants  and  to  the  inferior 
animals ;  "  for  remember  that  thou  wast  a 
servant  in  the  land  of  Egypt."  How  this  rest 
is  to  be  carried  out,  within  what  limits  it  is  to 
be  confined,  what  amount  of  innocent  recrea- 
tion is  to  be  allowed,  how  far  the  Continental 
nations  have  erred  on   the   one  side  or  the 


THEIR  CONTENTS.  35 

Scottish  nation  on  the  other  side,  in  their 
mode  of  observance,  whether  the  observance 
of  the  English  Sunday  is  exactly  what  it 
ought  to  be,  or  in  what  respects  it  might  be 
improved — these  are  questions  which  this  is 
not  the  place  to  discuss.  It  is  enough  to  say 
that  amidst  all  the  variations  in  the  mode  of 
observing  the  Sunday,  it  is  still  possible,  and 
it  is  still  our  duty,  to  bear  in  mind  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  ancient  Law.  "  I  was  i?i  the  Spirit 
on  the  Lord's  Day :"  that  is  what  we  should 
all  strive  to  attain — to  be  raised  at  least  for 
one  day  in  the  week  above  the  grinding  toil 
of  our  daily  work — above  the  debasing  influ- 
ence of  frivolous  amusements — above  the 
jangling  of  business  and  controversy — raised 
into  the  high  and  holy  atmosphere  breathed 
by  pure  and  peaceful  lives,  bright  and  beau- 
tiful thoughts,  elevating  and  invigorating 
worship.  Although  the  day  has  been  changed 
from  the  seventh  day  to  the  first  day  every- 
where— nay,  even  had  it  been  further  changed, 
as  Calvin  intended,  from  Sunday  to  Thursday 
— even  had  it  yet  been  further  changed,  as 
Tyndale,  the  foremost  of  the  English  Re- 
formers, proposed,  from  the  seventh  day  to 
the  tenth  day — yet  still  there  would  survive 
the  solemn  obligation  founded,  not  on  the  Law 


36  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

of  Moses,  but  on  the  Law  of  God  in  Nature, 
the  obKgation  of  rest  and  of  worship  as  long 
as  human  nature  remains  what  it  is,  as  long  as 
the  things  which  are  temporal  are  seen,  and 
the  things  which  ar^  eternal  are  unseen. 

5.  The  Fifth  Commandment.  Here,  again, 
the  letter  has  ceased  to  have  any  meaning  for 
us.  "That  thy  days  may  be  long  in  the  land 
which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee."  We 
have  no  claim  on  the  inheritance  of  the  land 
of  Canaan.  No  amount  of  filial  reverence  will 
secure  for  us  the  possession  of  the  goodly 
heights  of  Lebanon,  or  the  forests  of  Gilead, 
or  the  rushing  waters  of  Jordan.  But  the 
ordinance  of  affection  and  honor  to  parents 
has  not  diminished,  but  grov/n,  with  the  years 
which  have  passed  since  the  command  was 
first  issued.  The  love  of  son  to  mother,  the 
honor  of  children  to  parents,  is  far  stronger 
now  than  in  the  days  of  Moses. 

It  is  often  discussed  in  these  days  whether 
this  or  that  principle  of  religion  is  natural  or 
supernatural.  How  often  is  this  distinction 
entirely  without  meaning !  The  Fifth  Com- 
mandment— sacred  to  the  dearest,  deepest, 
purest,  noblest  aspirations  of  the  heart — is 
natural,  because  it  is  supernatural,  is  super- 
natural because  it  is  natural.     It  is  truly  re- 


THEIR  CONTENTS.  37 

garded  as  the  symbol,  as  the  sanction,  of  the 
whole  framework  of  civil  and  religious  society. 
Our  obedience  to  law,  our  love  of  country,  is 
not  a  bond  of  mere  expediency  or  accident. 
It  is  not  a  worldly,  unspiritual  ordinance,  to 
be  rejected  because  it  crosses  some  religious 
fancies  or  interferes  with  some  theological 
allegory.  It  is  binding  on  the  Christian  con- 
science, because  it  is  part  of  the  natural  re- 
ligion of  the  human  race  and  of  the  best  in- 
stincts of  Christendom. 

6.  The  Sixth  Commandment.  The  crime 
of  murder  is  what  it  chiefly  condemns,  and 
no  sentimental  feelings  of  modern  times  have 
ever  been  able  to  bring  the  murderer  down 
from  that  bad  pre-eminence  as  the  worst  and 
most  apalling  of  human  offenders.  It  is  the 
consummation  of  selfishness.  It  is  the  dis- 
regard of  the  most  precious  of  God's  earthly 
gifts — the  gift  of  life.  But  the  scope  of  the 
Commandment  extends  much  further.  In  the 
Christian  sense  he  is  a  breaker  of  the  Sixth 
Commandment  who  promotes  quarrels  and 
jealousies  in  families,  who  indulges  in  fierce, 
contemptuous  words,  who  fans  the  passions 
of  class  against  class,  of  church  against 
church,  of  nation  against  nation.  In  the 
horrors  of  war  it  is  not  the  innocent  soldier 


38  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

killing  his  adversary  in  battle,  but  the  parti- 
sans on  whatever  side,  the  ambitious  in  what- 
ever nation,  the  reckless  journalists  and  de- 
claimers  of  whatever  opinions,  by  which  angry 
passions  are  fostered,  that  are  the  true  re- 
sponsible authors  of  the  horrors  which  follow 
in  the  train  of  armies  and  in  the  fields  of 
carnage.  In  the  violence  of  civil  and  intes- 
tine discord,  it  is  not  only  human  life  that  is 
at  stake,  but  that  which  makes  human  life 
precious.  "As  well  kill  a  good  man  as  a 
good  book,"  was  the  saying  of  Milton,  and  so 
we  may  add,  in  thinking  of  those  who  care 
neither  to  preserve  nor  to  improve  the  in- 
heritance which  God  has  given  us,  "  As  well 
kill  a  good  man  as  a  good  institution." 

7.  The  Seventh  Commandment.  Of  this  it 
is  enough  to  say  that  here  also  we  know  well 
in  our  consciences  that  it  is  not  only  the 
shameless  villain  who  invades  the  sanctity  of 
another's  home  and  happiness  that  falls  under 
the  condemnation  of  that  dreadful  word  which 
the  Seventh  Commandment  uses.  It  is  the 
reader  and  writer  of  filthy  books  :  it  is  the 
young  man  or  the  young  woman  who  allows 
his  or  her  purity  and  dignity  to  be  soiled 
and  stained  by  loose  talk  and  loose  company. 
If  the  sacredness  of   the  marriage  bond  be 


THEIR  CONTENTS.  39 

the  glory  of  our  English  homes,  no  eccentrici- 
ties of  genius,  no  exceptional  misfortunes — 
however  much  we  may  excuse  or  pity  those 
who  have  gone  astray — can  justify  us  in  making 
light  of  that  which,  disregarded  in  one  case, 
is  endangered  in  all,  which,  if  lost  in  a  few 
cases,  is  the  ruin  of  hundreds.  It  is  not  the 
loss  of  Christianity,  but  of  civilization  ;  not 
the  advance  to  freedom,  but  the  relapse  into 
barbarism. 

8.  The  Eighth  Commandment.  "  Thou 
shalt  not  steal."  That  lowest,  meanest  crime 
of  the  thief  and  the  robber  is  not  all  that  the 
Eighth  Commandment  condemns.  It  is  the 
taking  of  money  which  is  not  our  due,  and 
which  we  are  forbidden  to  receive;  it  is  the 
squandering  of  money  which  is  not  our  own, 
on  the  race-course  or  at  the  gambling  table; 
it  is  the  taking  advantage  of  a  flaw  or  an 
accident  in  a  will  which  gives  us  property 
which  was  not  intended  for  us,  and  to  which 
others  have  a  better  claim  than  we.  He  is 
the  true  observer  of  the  Eighth  Command- 
ment not  only  who  keeps  his  hands  from  pick- 
ing and  stealing,  but  he  who  renders  just 
restitution,  he  who,  like  the  great  Indian 
soldier,  Outram,  the  Bayard  of  modern  times, 
would  not  claim  any  advantage  from  a  war 


40  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

which  he  had  victoriously  conducted,  because 
he  thought  the  war  itself  was  wrong ;  he  who 
is  scrupulously  honest,  even  to  the  last  far- 
thing of  his  accounts,  with  master  or  servant, 
with  employer  or  employed  ;  he  who  respects 
the  rights  of  others,  not  only  of  the  rich 
against  the  poor,  not  only  of  the  poor  against 
the  rich,  but  of  all  classes  against  each  other. 
These,  and  these  only,  are  the  Christian 
keepers  of  the  Eighth  Commandment. 

9.  The  Ninth  Commandment.  "Thou  shalt 
not  bear  false  witness."  False  witness,  de- 
liberate perjury,  is  the  crown  and  consum- 
mation of  the  liar's  progress.  But  what  a 
world  of  iniquity  is  covered  by  that  one  word, 
Lie.  Careless,  damaging  statements,  thrown 
hither  and  thither  in  conversation ;  reckless 
exaggeration  and  romancing,  only  to  make 
stories  more  pungent ;  hasty  records  of  char- 
acter, left  to  be  published  after  we  are  dead  ; 
heedless  disregard  of  the  supreme  duty  and 
value  of  truth  in  all  things, — these  are  what  we 
should  bear  in  mind  when  v/e  are  told  that  we 
are  not  to  bear  false  witness  against  our  neigh- 
bor. A  lady  who  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
spreading  slanderous  reports  once  confessed 
her  fault  to  St.  Philip  Neri,  and  asked  how  she 
could  cure  it.     He  said,  "■  Go  to  the  nearest 


THEIR  CONTENTS.  41 

market-place,  buy  a  chicken  just  killed,  pluck 
its  feathers  all  the  way  as  you  return,  and 
come  back  to  me."  She  was  much  surprised, 
and  when  she  saw  her  adviser  again,  he  said, 
"Now  go  back,  and  bring  me  back  all  the 
feathers  you  have  scattered."  ''But  that  is 
impossible,"  she  said  ;  "  I  cast  away  the 
feathers  carelessly  ;  the  wind  carried  them 
away.  How  can  I  recover  them?"  "That," 
he  said,  "  is  exactly  like  your  words  of  slan- 
der. They  have  been  carried  about  in  every 
direction  ;  you  cannot  recall  them.  Go,  and 
slander  no  more." 

10.  The  Tenth  Commandment.  The  form 
of  the  Commandment  speaks  only  of  the 
possessions  of  a  rude  and  pastoral  people, — 
the  wife  of  a  neighboring  chief,  the  male  and 
female  slaves,  the  Syrian  ox,  the  Egyptian 
ass.  But  the  principle  strikes  at  the  very 
highest  heights  of  civilization  and  at  the  very 
innermost  secrets  of  the  heart.  Greed,  self- 
ishness, ambition,  egotism,  self-importance, 
money-getting,  rash  speculation,  desire  of  the 
poor  to  pull  down  the  rich,  desire  of  the  rich 
to  exact  more  than  their  due  from  the  poor, 
eagerness  to  destroy  the  most  useful  and 
sacred  institutions  in  order  to  gratify  a  social 
revenge,  or  to  gain  a  lost  place,  or  to  make  a 


42  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

figure  in  the  world, — these  are  amongst  the 
wide-reaching  evils  which  are  included  in  that 
ancient  but  most  expressive  word  "  covetous- 
ness."  "I  had  not  known  sin,"  says  the 
Apostle  Paul,  **but  for  the  law  which  says, 
Thoii  shall  not  covets  So  we  may  all  say. 
No  one  can  know  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of 
sin  who  does  not  know  the  guilt  of  selfishess; 
no  one  can  know  the  exceeding  beauty  of 
holiness  who  has  not  seen  or  felt  the  glory  of 
unselfishness. 

IV.  These  are  the  Ten  Commandments — 
the  summary  of  the  morality  of  Judaism,  the 
basis  of  the  morality  of  Christian  Churches. 
We  have  heard  it  said  of  such  and  such  an 
one  with  open,  genuine  countenance,  that  he 
looked  as  if  he  had  the  Ten  Commandments 
written  on  his  face.  It  was  remarked  by  an 
honest,  pious  Roman  Catholic  of  the  last 
generation,  on  whom  a  devout  but  feeble  en- 
thusiast was  pressing  the  use  of  this  and  that 
small  practice  of  devotion,  "My  devotions 
are  much  better  than  those.  They  are  the 
devotions  of  the  Ten  Commandments  of 
God." 

In  the  Reformed  American  Church  and  in 
the  Reformed  Churches  of  France,  and  in- 
tended by  the  last  Reformers  of  the  English 


THE  TWO  ORE  A  T  COMMANDMENTS.         43 

Liturgy  in  1689,  though  they  failed  to  carry 
the  point,  after  the  Ten  Commandments  are 
read  in  church  comes  this  memorable  addi- 
tion, which  we  ought  all  to  supply  in  memory, 
even  although  it  is  not  publicly  used  :  "  Hear 
also  what  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  saith."  This 
is  what  is  taken  as  the  ground  of  the  explana- 
tion of  the  Commandments  in  all  Christian 
Catechisms  of  our  duty  to  God.  Everything 
in  what  we  call  the  first  table  is  an  enlarge- 
ment of  that  one  simple  command,  "Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God."  Everything 
in  the  second  table  of  our  duty  to  our  neigh- 
bor is  an  enlargement  of  the  command, 
"Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 
The  two  together  are  the  whole  of  religion. 
Each  of  itself  calls  our  attention  to  what  is 
the  first  and  chief  duty  of  each  of  the  two 
tables.  God,  the  Supreme  Goodness,  and 
the  Supreme  Truth,  is  to  be  served  with  no 
half  service ;  it  must  be  a  service  that  goes 
through  our  whole  lives.  We  must  place 
Him  above  ever)^thing  else.  He  is  all  in  all 
to  us.  Truth,  justice,  purity  are  in  Him 
made  the  supreme  object  of  our  devotion  and 
affection.  "  Let  no  man,"  says  Lord  Bacon, 
"  out  of  weak  conceit  of  authority  or  ill- 
applied  moderation,  think  or  imagine  that  a 


44  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

man  can  search  too  far  or  be  too  well  sup- 
plied in  the  Book  of  God's  Word  or  the 
Book  of  God's  Works."  Man  is  to  be  served 
also  with  a  love  like  that  which  we  give  to 
ourselves.  Selfishness  is  here  made  the  root 
of  all  evil ;  unselfishness  the  root  of  all  good- 
ness. Toleration  of  every  difference  of  race 
or  creed  is  summed  up  in  the  expression 
"thy  neighbor." 

It  was  a  saying  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
"When  any  church  will  inscribe  over  its 
altar  as  its  sole  qualification  for  membership 
the  Saviour's  condensed  statement  of  the 
substance  of  both  Law  and  Gospel  in  those 
two  great  Commandments,  that  church  will 
I  join  with  all  my  heart  and  with  all  my  soul." 
There  may  be  an  exaggeration  in  the  expres- 
sion, but  the  thing  intended  is  true.  If  any 
church  existed  which  in  reality  and  in  spirit 
put  forth  those  two  Commandments  as  the 
sum  and  substance  of  its  belief,  as  that  to 
which  all  else  tended,  and  for  the  sake  of 
which  all  was  done,  it  would  indeed  take  the 
first  place  amongst  the  churches  of  the 
world,  because  it  would  be  the  Church  that 
most  fully  had  expressed  the  mind  and  inten- 
tion of  the  Founder  of  Christendom. 

V.  There  was  an  addition  which  the  Eng- 


THE  ELEVENTH  COM^TANDMENT.  45 

lish  divines  of  the  time  of  William  III  wished 
to  make  to  the  recital  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments in  church.  It  was  baffled  by  the  ob- 
stinate prejudice  of  the  inferior  clergy.  But 
its  intention  was  singularly  fine.  It  was  that, 
on  the  three  great  festivals,  instead  of  the 
Ten  Commandments  of  Mount  Sinai,  should 
be  read  the  Eight  Beatitudes  of  the  Mountain 
of  Galilee,  in  order  to  remind  us  that  beyond 
and  above  the  Law  of  Duty,  there  is  the 
happiness  of  that  inward  spirit  which  is  at 
once  the  spring  and  the  result  of  all  duty — 
the  happiness,  the  blessedness  which  belongs 
to  the  humble,  the  sincere,  the  unselfish,  the 
eager  aspirant  after  goodness,  the  generous, 
the  pure,  the  courageous.  That  happiness  is 
the  highest  end  and  aim  of  all  religion. 

VI.  There  is  one  addition  yet  to  be  made, 
which  has  never  been  suggested  by  authority. 

We  sometimes  hear  in  conversation  of  an 
Eleventh  Commandment  invented  by  the 
world,  in  cynical  contempt  of  the  old  com- 
mandments or  in  pursuit  of  some  selfish  or 
wicked  end.  Of  such  an  Eleventh  Command- 
ment, whether  in  jest  or  earnest,  we  need  not 
here  speak.  It  is  enough  to  be  reminded  of 
it,  and  pass  it  by.  But  there  is  also  what 
may  be  called  the  Eleventh  Commandment 


46  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

of  churches  and  sects.  In  the  oldest  and 
most  venerable  of  all  ecclesiastical  divisions 
— the  ancient  Samaritan  community,  who 
have  for  centuries,  without  increase  or  dimi- 
nution, gathered  round  Mount  Gerizim  as  the 
only  place  where  men  ought  to  worship — 
there  is,  as  noticed  above,  to  be  read  upon 
the  aged  parchment-scroll  of  the  Pentateuch 
this  commandment,  added  to  the  other  Ten, 
"  Thou  shalt  build  an  altar  on  Mount  Geri- 
zim, and  there  only  shalt  thou  worship." 
Faithfully  have  they  followed  that  command ; 
excommunicating,  and  excommunicated  by  all 
other  religious  societies,  they  cling  to  that 
Eleventh  Commandment  as  equal,  if  not  su- 
perior, to  all  the  rest.  This  is  the  true  like- 
ness of  what  all  churches  and  sects,  unless 
purified  by  a  higher  spirit,  are  tempted  to 
add.  "Thou  shalt  do  something  for  this  par- 
ticular community,  which  none  else  may 
share.  Thou  shalt  do  this  over  and  above, 
and  more  than  thy  plain  duties  to  God  and 
man.  Thou  shalt  build  thine  altar  on  Mount 
Gerizim,  for  here  alone  our  fathers  have  said 
that  God  is  to  be  worshipped.  Thou  shalt 
maintain  the  exclusive  sacredness  of  this  or 
that  place,  this  or  that  word,  this  or  that  doc- 
trine, this  or  that  party,  this  or  that  institu- 


THE  ELEVENTH  COMMANDMENT.  47 

tion,  this  or  that  mode  of  doing  good.  Thou 
shalt  worship  God  thus  and  thus  only."  This 
is  the  Eleventh  Commandment  according  to 
sects  and  parties  and  partisans.  For  this  we 
are  often  told  to  contend  more  than  for  all 
the  other  Ten  together.  For  an  Eleventh 
Commandment  like  to  this,  half  the  energies 
of  Christendom  have  been  spent,  and  spent  in 
vain.  For  some  command  like  this  men  have 
fought  and  struggled  and  shed  their  own 
blood  and  the  blood  of  others,  as  though  it 
were  a  command  engraven  on  the  tables  of 
the  everlasting  law ;  and  yet  again  and  again 
and  again,  it  has  been  found  in  after  ages 
that  such  a  command  was  an  addition  as  ven- 
erable, perhaps,  and  as  full  of  interest,  but  as 
superfluous,  as  misleading,  as  disproportion- 
ate, as  that  Eleventh  Samaritan  command- 
ment,— "  Thou  shalt  build  an  altar  on  Mount 
Gerizim,  and  there  only  shalt  thou  worship." 

But  there  is  a  divine  Eleventh  Command- 
ment,— "A  new  commandment  I  give  unto 
you,  that  ye  love  one  another;  As  I  have 
loved  you,  that  ye  also  should  love  one 
another." 

It  is  contained  in  the  parting  discourse  of 
St.  John's  Gospel,  and  it  is  introduced  there 
as  a  surprise  to  the  Apostles.     **  What  .^    Are 


48  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

not  the  Ten  Commandments  enough  ?  Must 
we  always  be  pressing  forward  to  something 
new?  What  is  this  that  He  saith,  *A  new 
commandment  ? '  We  cannot  tell  what  He 
saith."  Nevertheless  it  corresponds  to  a  gen- 
uine want  of  the  human  heart. 

Beyond  the  Ten  Commandments  there  is 
yet  a  craving  for  something  even  beyond 
duty,  even  beyond  reverence.  There  is  a 
need  which  can  only  be  satisfied  by  a  new, 
by  an  Eleventh  Commandment,  which  shall 
be  at  once  old  and  new — which  shall  open  a 
new  field  of  thought  and  exertion  for  each 
generation  of  men ;  which  shall  give  a  fresh, 
undying  impulse  to  its  older  sisters — the 
youngest  child  (so  to  speak)  of  the  patri- 
archal family.  The  true  new  commandment 
which  Jesus  Christ  gave  was,  in  its  very  form 
and  fashion,  peculiarly  characteristic  of  the 
Christian  Religion. 

The  novelty  of  the  commandment  lay  in 
two  points.  First,  it  was  new,  because  of  the 
paramount,  predominant  place  which  it  gave 
to  the  force  of  the  human  affections,  the  en- 
thusiasm for  the  good  of  others,  which  was — 
instead  of  ceremonial,  or  mere  obedience,  or 
correctness  of  belief — henceforth  to  become 
the  appointed   channel   of    religious   fervor. 


THE  ELEVENTH  COMMANDMENT.  49 

And,  secondly,  it  was  new,  because  it  was 
founded  on  the  appearance  of  a  new  charac- 
ter, a  new  manifestation  of  the  character  of 
Man,  a  new  manifestation  of  the  character  of 
God.  Even  if  the  Four  Gospels  had  been 
lost,  we  should  see,  from  the  urgency  with 
which  the  Apostles  press  this  new  grace  of 
Love  or  Charity  upon  us,  that  some  diviner 
vision  of  excellence  had  crossed  their  minds. 
The  very  word  which  they  used  to  express  it 
was  new,  for  the  thing  was  new,  the  example 
was  new,  and  the  consequences  therefore  were 
new  also. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  solid  blocks  or 
tables  on  which  the  Ten  Commandments  were 
written  were  of  the  granite  rock  of  Sinai,  as 
if  to  teach  us  that  all  the  great  laws  of  duty 
to  God  and  duty  to  man  were  like  that  oldest 
primeval  foundation  of  the  world — more  solid, 
more  enduring  than  all  the  other  strata  ;  cut- 
ting across  all  the  secondary  and  artificial 
distinctions  of  mankind ;  heaving  itself  up, 
now  here,  now  there ;  throwing  up  here  the 
fantastic  crag,  the  towering  peak,  there  the 
long  range  which  unites  or  divides  the  races 
of  mankind.  That  is  the  universal,  everlast- 
ing character  of  Duty.  But  as  that  granite 
rock  itself  has  been   fused   and  wrought  to- 


50  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

gether  by  a  central  fire,  without  which  it  could 
not  have  existed  at  all,  so  also  the  Christian 
law  of  Duty,  in  order  to  perform  fully  its  work 
in  the  world,  must  have  been  warmed  at  the 
heart  and  fed  at  the  source  by  a  central  fire 
of  its  own — and  tKat  central  fire  is  Love — 
the  gracious,  kindly,  generous,  admiring,  ten- 
der movements  of  the  human  affections  ;  and 
that  central  fire  itself  is  kept  alive  by  the  con- 
sciousness that  there  has  been  in  the  world  a 
Love  beyond  all  human  love,  a  devouring  fire 
of  Divine  enthusiasm  on  behalf  of  our  race, 
v/hich  is  the  Love  of  Christ.  It  is  not  con- 
trary to  the  Ten  Commandments.  It  is  not 
outside  of  them,  it  is  v/ithin  them ;  it  is  at 
their  core;  it  is  wrapped  up  in  them,  as  the 
particles  of  the  central  heat  of  the  globe  were 
encased  within  the  granite  tables  in  the  Ark 
of  the  Temple.  "  What  was  it  that  made 
him  undertake  the  support  of  the  Abolition 
of  the  Slave-trade  } "  was  asked  of  an  eminent 
statesman  respecting  the  conduct  of  another. 
**  It  was  his  love  of  the  human  race." 
This  was  what  the  Apostle  Paul  meant  by 
saying,  "  Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  Law." 
This  is  what  St.  Peter  meant  by  saying, 
"Above  all  things,  have  fervent,"  enthusi- 
astic "  Love."     This  is  what  St.  John  meant 


THE  ELEVENTH  COMMANDMENT.         51 

when,  in  his  extreme  old  age,  he  was  carried 
into  the  market-place  of  Ephesus,  and,  ac- 
cording to  the  ancient  tradition,  repeated 
over  and  over  again  to  his  disciples  the 
words  which  he  had  heard  from  his  Master, 
"Little  children,  love  one  another."  They 
were  vexed  by  hearing  this  commandment, 
this  Eleventh  Commandment,  repeated  so 
often.  They  asked  for  something  more  pre- 
cise, more  definite,  more  dogmatic ;  but  the 
aged  Apostle,  we  are  told,  had  but  one 
answer:  "This  is  the  sum  and  substance  of 
the  Gospel ;  if  you  do  this,  I  have  nothing 
else  to  teach  you."  He  did  not  mean  that 
ceremonies,  doctrines,  ordinances  were  of  no 
importance  ;  but  that  they  were  altogether  of 
secondary  importance.  He  meant  that  they 
were  on  the  outside  of  religion,  whereas  this 
commandment  belonged  to  its  innermost  sub- 
stance; that,  if  this  commandment  were  car- 
ried out,  all  that  was  good  in  all  the  rest 
would  follow ;  that,  if  this  commandment 
were  neglected,  all  that  was  good  in  all  the 
rest  would  fade  away,  and  all  that  was  evil 
and  one-sided  and  exaggerated  would  prevail 
and  pervert  even  the  good.  He  meant  and 
his  Master  meant  that,  as  the  ages  rolled  on, 
other  truths  may  be  folded  up  and  laid  aside ; 


52  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

but  that  this  would  always  need  to  be  enforced 
and  developed. 

Love  one  another  in  spite  of  differences,  in 
spite  of  faults,  in  spite  of  the  excesses  of  one 
or  the  defects  of  another.  Love  one  another, 
and  make  the  best  of  one  another,  as  He  loved 
us,  who,  for  the  sake  of  saving  what  was  good 
in  the  human  soul,  forgot,  forgave,  put  out  of 
sight  what  was  bad — who  saw  and  loved  what 
was  good  even  in  the  publican  Zaccheus,  even 
in  the  penitent  Magdalen,  even  in  the  expiring 
malefactor,  even  in  the  heretical  Samaritan, 
even  in  the  Pharisee  Nicodemus,  even  in  the 
heathen  soldier,  even  in  the  outcast  Canaanite. 
Make  the  most  of  what  there  is  good  in  insti- 
tutions, in  opinions,  in  communities,  in  indi- 
viduals. It  is  very  easy  to  do  the  reverse,  to 
make  the  worst  of  what  there  is  of  evil,  ab- 
surd, and  erroneous.  By  so  doing  we  shall 
have  no  difficulty  in  making  estrangements 
more  wide,  and  hatreds  and  strifes  more 
abundant,  and  errors  more  extreme.  It  is 
very  easy  to  fix  our  attention  only  on  the 
weak  points  of  those  around  us,  to  magnify 
them,  to  irritate  them,  to  aggravate  them 
and  by  so  doing  we  can  make  the  burden  of 
life  unendurable,  and  can  destroy  our  own  and 
others'  happiness  and  usefulness  wherever  we 


THE  ELEVENTH  COMMANDMENT  53 

go.  But  this  is  not  the  new  love  wherewith 
we  are  to  love  one  another.  That  love  is 
universal,  because  in  its  spirit  we  overcome 
evil  simply  by  doing  good.  We  drive  out  error 
simply  by  telling  the  truth.  We  strive  to  look 
on  both  sides  of  the  shield  of  truth.  We  strive 
to  speak  the  truth  in  love,  that  is,  without 
exaggeration  or  misrepresentation;  concealing 
nothing,  compromising  nothing,  but  with  the 
effort  to  understand  each  other,  to  discover 
the  truth  which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the 
error;  with  the  determination  cordially  to 
love  whatever  is  lovable  even  in  those  in 
whom  we  cordially  detest  whatever  is  detest- 
able. And,  in  proportion  as  we  endeavor  to 
do  this,  there  may  be  a  hope  that  men  will 
see  that  there  are,  after  all,  some  true  disci- 
ples of  Christ  left  in  the  world,  "because  they 
have  love  one  to  another." 


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